Words from the Wise

Wooton Bassett and Penny arrive at the Pittsburgh airport so that Wooton can finally meet Penny's family. He has come prepared in his own unique way, with notes about each relative scribbled up and down his arms and ankles: her mother Ellie is a hairdresser, her father Frank is a steelworker, and her sister Charlotte is a research scientist. The introductions go warmly enough, though Ellie immediately eyes Wooton's red hair and declares that highlights would do marvels, and she can't resist reminding everyone that she always planned for Penny to work beside her in the salon.

After a family dinner, Penny confesses to Wooton why she has been acting so strangely proper. She desperately wants her parents' approval, but she feels like the family disappointment next to Charlotte, who earned perfect grades, married her high school sweetheart, and does important medical research. Penny sees herself as naive and silly, the daughter who overspends and once even got tricked into helping a counterfeiting ring. Worst of all, a painting she lovingly made of her parents' wedding day ended up hanging in the back of their closet, behind her mother's bathrobe collection. Wooton insists she is an amazing artist and an amazing person, and he promises to help her parents see it.

Wooton's plan turns out to be letting Ellie give him highlights at the salon while he raves about how responsible Penny has become, praising her budgeting, her calendar, and her flossing, and even dubbing her "punctual Penny." Ellie seems doubtful, and the sales pitch is interrupted when Penny rushes in to confess that she has broken the side mirror on her father's brand-new car. Frank takes the accident kindly, but Penny insists on making it up to everyone by treating the family to dinner. When her father suggests the Rib Palace, her old favorite, Penny turns it down as not classy enough and picks the fanciest French restaurant in town instead, where she and Wooton plan to ask her parents' blessing on their marriage.

The fancy dinner at Chez Bon quickly goes sideways. Wooton assures Penny it's "like a regular restaurant, only with more forks and fire hazards," and lends her his phone with an etiquette app called the Manners Master. Penny keeps excusing herself to secretly ask the app questions, from where to point her silverware to what to do about a contact lens in the soup, until her family starts wondering if she's feeling ill. When she cuts herself and the whole table piles on with advice, Penny finally snaps, blurting out that all she wanted was a nice dinner where she could announce that she and Wooton are getting married. Her parents quietly suggest they all talk about it at home.

Back at the house, Frank comes right out with it: he and Ellie don't think the two should marry, because Penny doesn't seem ready. Wooton leaps to her defense, declaring that she is smart and funny, with the biggest heart of anyone he knows, even if she doesn't always match her socks. To his surprise, her parents completely agree. They love Penny's creative, quirky side; what worried them was that she has seemed so stiff and normal all week, and they feared Wooton was changing her into someone stuffy. Penny admits the truth: she was acting mature on purpose, trying to be more like Charlotte. Charlotte, stunned, confesses that she always felt like the flaky one who was told to be more like Penny. Their father sets them both straight, telling Penny, "You're Penny. You're great at being Penny," and assuring both daughters that they are loved for their different gifts. Even the mystery of the hidden painting is solved: after neighbors were burglarized, Frank became convinced Penny's artwork would someday be worth millions, so he hid it behind bathrobes to keep it safe from thieves, a collection he made Ellie start for exactly that purpose. He slides the robes aside to enjoy it whenever they're home and proudly shows it off to trustworthy friends.

With everything out in the open, Penny's parents happily give their blessing on one condition: the couple must reenact the proposal. Wooton drops to one knee and, to Penny's astonishment, produces a real ring, which he secretly bought at the jewelry store near the body shop while the car mirror was being repaired. He tells her he loves her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her, and Penny joyfully answers that more than anything, she wants to marry him.